Alma Taylor Movies
Great Britain's first true screen star, brunette Alma Taylor gained her greatest popularity playing one of the two sprightly "Tilly girls" in a series of comedies produced by Hepworth in 1910-1911. The other Tilly girl was Chrissie White and each in her own way would come to personify the typical British silent screen heroine: innocuous, well-mannered, and invariably dressed for comfort. Taylor, who at one point was favorably compared to America's Mary Pickford, found her career waning after World War I and she was decidedly long in the tooth when producer/director Cecil M. Hepworth decided to remake the already then old-fashioned Comin' Thro the Rye in 1923. Taylor played her usual heroine, suffering nobly and at great length after losing her man to another woman. One critic dismissed the film as poor melodrama, complaining that the starring role was not played by Taylor but by "a field in which the rye, as far as I remember, failed to function obediently." Due to a slump in British film production, Taylor disappeared until 1926, when Hepworth launched a comeback of sorts with The House of Marney, and she did a couple of thrillers in Germany, including a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929). Once the darling of British movie audiences and the wife of prolific film producer Walter West, Alma Taylor was reduced to minor bit parts in sound films until her retirement in the late '50s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Writer/artist Roland Searle's diabolical "belles" of St. Trinian's Girls School return in this raucous British comedy. Because the girls cannot behave themselves, their headmistress (Alastair Sim in drag!) has been thrown in jail, and the school is surrounded by police and army troops. The students escape their durance vile by winning an all-expense-paid trip to Europe (by cheating, of course). While laying waste to the Continent (with Terry-Thomas driving the bus), the girls are enmeshed in a diamond theft instigated by the father (George Cole) of one of the students. The film ends with an elongated water polo game, played with the ladies' usual sense of sportsmanship and fair play. In the 1950s and 1960s, the "St. Trinians" series was as popular a British movie attraction as the "Carry On" films--but unlike "Carry On", they don't play quite as well with American audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry-Thomas, George Cole, (more)
The debate still rages as to whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is superior to his own original 1934 version. This two-hour remake (45 minutes longer than the first film) features more stars, a lusher budget, and the plaintive music of Bernard Herrmann (who appears on-camera, typecast as a symphony conductor). Though the locale of the opening scenes shifts from Switzerland to French Morocco in the newer version, the basic plot remains the same. American tourists James Stewart and Doris Day are witness to the street killing of a Frenchman (Daniel Gelin) they've recently befriended. Before breathing his last, the murder victim whispers a secret to Stewart (the Cinemascope lens turns this standard closeup into a truly grotesque vignette). Stewart knows that a political assassination will occur during a concert at London's Albert Hall, but is unable to tell the police: his son (a daughter in the original) has been kidnapped by foreign agents to insure Stewart's silence. The original script for Man Who Knew too Much was expanded and updated by John Michael Hayes and Angus McPhail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Doris Day, (more)
- 1955
An 18-month-old baby disappears in London. The parents, US embassy worker David Knight and his wife Julia Arnall, are panic-stricken. Detective David Farrar tries to locate the child, but clues are scarce. At the last possible moment, Farrar rescues the infant from a grueling fate and collars the kidnappers. This nail-biting film is filled to capacity with many of Britain's top supporting players, including Thora Hird, Everley Gregg, Joan Sims, Shirley Anne Field, Joan Hickson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, Barbara Winsor and George Woodbridge. Released in the US by Republic, under the title Tears for Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, David Knight, (more)
- 1955
The fast-paced world of stock-car racing provides the backdrop of this British adventure. The story centers on Katie Glebe as she attempts to save her father's failing garage after he is killed during a race. She ends up assisted by an American driver, Larry Duke. Unfortunately, creditor Turk McNeil is determined to take the garage to repay a debt. Real trouble ensues when Turk's lover Gina becomes interested in Larry. Turk then rigs the race and has Larry beaten up. Fortunately, this does not stop the determined Yankee from winning the race and the girl in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Anna Neagle is so overpoweringly good in Lilacs in the Spring (aka Let's Make Up!) that a times it's easy to forget that her co-star is Errol Flynn! Based on Glorious Days, a play by Robert Nesbitt, the film offers Neagle in four different characterizations. Suffering a concussion while serving in WW II, service performer Catherine Beaumont (Neagle) imagines herself to be Nell Gwynn, and still later fancies herself to be Queen Victoria (both of these historical personages had been played by Neagle in previous films). Finally, Catherine conjures up memories of her own mother Lillian Grey (also Neagle), who married song-and-dance man John Beaumont (Errol Flynn) during WW I, then nearly lost him when he "went Hollywood." Though he'd been having an overabundance of personal problems, Errol Flynn conducted himself with utmost professionalism throughout Lilacs in the Spring, delighting co-workers and movie audiences alike. The film was a hit, prompting a second, less-successful Anna Neagle-Errol Flynn pairing, King's Rhapsody. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn, (more)
- 1936
In this sentimental drama, a nightclub singer finds herself in charge of her late sister's children. To support them properly, she leaves the nightlife behind and takes the kids to a farm. Her manager, not anxious to lose his main source of income, tries to get her declared legally incompetent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
In this British comedy, a proper teacher at a private girl's school secretly elopes with a wrestler. To conceal the wedding, she has her twin sister, a trick rider for the circus, take her place in school. The circus performer turns out to be a natural teacher and before her sister comes back, is promoted to headmistress. Keep a sharp eye out for Vivien Leigh in her feature film debut. She plays a school girl and though she only had one line, a number of close-ups centered on her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
William Freshman is in love with Ann Casson. She's engaged to military officer Henry Wenman. To eliminate competition, Freshman "borrows" a baby and claims that it's Wenman's. Fire, flood, famine, plague-you'll see none of these in Bachelor's Baby, but the complications lean towards the comically apocalyptic all the same. The film was based on a novel by Rolph Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Horace Annesley Vachell's novel Quinney's was adapted for the screen by John Longden, who also played the titular role. Though he tries to be a good husband and father, Joe Quinney (Longden) is more comfortable with material possessions than with people. He is especially fond of antiques -- and never mind if they're "fakes," so long as they look good. Quinney's wife Susan (Alma Taylor), tired of being surrounded by ersatz artifacts, urges her husband to seek out "the real thing." He does and soon becomes the foremost antique dealer in the city. His livelihood is threatened by the return of his crooked ex-partner Tomlin (Sam Bosco), who endeavors to use Quinney's shop as a clearing house for a line of phony antique china and furniture -- and that's just one of the various plot strands. Quinney's ends on a happy note, a major departure from the original novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Longden, Alma Taylor, (more)
- 1923
This fondly remembered British romance starred former child actress Alma Taylor as the daughter of a tinker who falls in love with a reclusive widower (Hugh Clifton) and the father of a little boy (G.H. Mulcaster). Melodrama reared its ugly head when the tinker's (John McAndrews) invention is stolen by his nefarious secretary (Lawrence Hanray), but director Cecil M. Hepworth concocted a nice happy ending. A 1914 American two-reeler featuring Pauline Bush and Lon Chaney may have been an earlier version of this story. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1920
The old reliable stage chestnut Alf's Button was given perfunctory treatment by British director Cecil Hepworth. Leslie Hensen plays Alf Higgins, a World War 1 "Tommy" who discovers that a button on his jacket has unusual magical powers. It turns out that the button was forged from the metal of Aladdin's lamp. Granted three wishes, Alf squanders the first two, while the third forms the basis of the film's rousing finale. Playwright W. A. Darlington virtually built his career on Alf's Button and its sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Alma Taylor plays Anna, a cabaret dancer whose husband betrays her. With blood in her eye, Anna decides to get even with hubby in the most drastic manner possible. To do this, she assumes the identity of a nonexistent twin sister named Annabel. The ruse works, but as is often the case in screen stories based on the works of E. Phillips Oppenheim, there's many a plot twist before fade-out time. Ronald Colman had one of his earliest screen roles in the British Anna the Adventuress; he was sixth-billed as "Brendan." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Produced and directed by one of the pioneers of the British cinema, Cecil M. Hepworth, The Nature of the Beast, a typical World War I melodrama, starred Hepworth's most important leading lady, Alma Taylor. A former child actress, Miss Taylor grew into one of England's very few genuine movie stars, second only, perhaps, to the legendary Betty Balfour. This time around, Alma played a Belgian war refugee who marries a rich manufacturer (the burly Gerald Ames, only to be blackmailed by the nefarious German spy (James Carew), who once molested her. Like most of Hepworth's films, The Nature of the Beast was produced in picturesque Oakland Park Estate at Weybridge, England. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Produced and directed by British film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth, this family drama about a young couple trying desperately to win the approval of an irascible grandfather was set in British occupied Ireland in 1850. The five-reel drama starred Hepworth's two leading players, Alma Taylor and Stewart Rome. In fact, Miss Taylor, along with Betty Balfour and Chrissie White (Hepworth's wife), was one of England's few genuine movie stars, as popular in her day as Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1915
This English-made picture was based on the play by Sir Arthur Pinero). Iris (Alma Taylor) is raised in luxury, far removed from real life. When circumstances render her penniless she is forced to compromise her morals and become the mistress of Maldonado (Henry Ainley) -- even though she loves Trenwith (Stewart Rome). But Maldonado eventually throws her out into the street. In Pinero's play, Trenwith returns and when he discovers Iris's affair with Maldonado, he won't have anything to do with her. But in the film he forgives her, which makes a happy ending possible. This is proof that it wasn't just Hollywood that candy-coated its stories! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1913
A major undertaking in its day, this 6-reel version of Charles Dickens' teary tale of Little Nell (Mai Deacon, her grandfather (Warwick Buckland) and the Quilps (E. Felton and Alma Taylor) was produced by British silent screen pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth. Alma Taylor emerged as one of England's earliest genuine screen stars, a result of careful grooming by the astute Mr. Hepworth who would direct the typical British lass in several of her most popular vehicles. The director of The Old Curiosity Shop, however, was Dickens specialist Thomas Bentley, who remade it it in 1921 with Mabel Poulton as Little Nell and again in 1935, starring Elaine Benson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
